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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Noem's Meet & Greet and the 2nd Amendment

Probably a little more than 300 people showed up for Kristi Noem's Rapid City meet and greet at the bandshell in Memorial Park.

She showed up 20 minutes late, and then said all the things the crowd wanted to hear. She'll work to cut spending. She'll work to cut taxes. She's a firm believer in a person's right to hunt....ooops there.

She, like so many others, thinks the 2nd Amendment is about hunting and the dollars it brings to South Dakota. The 2nd Amendment is not about killing deer or pheasants. It's about killing – or at least deterring – oppression. Candidates who want my vote, need to remember that.

Her pro-life message contained in her brochure is pretty vague:

"Kristi is firmly pro-life. From the miracle of conception to a dignified death, life is precious and should be protected. The federal government has no business forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions."

It seems to me that she might support pulling the plug on those like Terri Schiavo who have no way to die with dignity. There's nothing in it that would suggest she'll be introducing legislation to ban abortions (other than those paid for by taxpayers) or to overturn Rowe v. Wade.

Of course, her opposition to ObamaCare also included her admonition that the President's healthcare legislation would "get between a patient and his/her doctor." That is of course exactly what more abortion regulations would do.

So there are conflicts, as there are with her opponent. Come back gentle readers. It appears that both candidates are as full of flaws as a pair of old shoes. We shall try (with the help of fellow Forumpians) which one represents the best fit.

1 comment:

My only hope that is if we get a bunch of naive politicians in DC for a few years they'll be crazy enough to actually cut a whole bunch of stuff without considering the political consequences.

I don't like the fact that Noem (or hardly any of the national Republican candidates) aren't willing to talk about specifics like they did in '94. Hopefully they really do have some secret plan to privatize SS & Medicare and repeal the 16th & 17th Amendments like the Democrat like to accuse them of. I'm not holding my breath though.

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Bob Newland posts topics to this forum. The Forum is based in Rapid City, So. Dak., so local references are almost always in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

A Creed

Politics was defined in an essay by the incomparable Lewis Lapham, at the time managing editor of Harper's magazine. He said, Politics is the continuous argument over who gets to do what to whom, for how long, and against what degree of dissent. It has yet to be said better.